Yellowstone, Memes, and MAGA
Go Woke Go Broke; Most are Awake
I have debated for more than a week whether to write anything up about this Twat phenomenon that occupied the attention of hot takes for a spell. The thing is, the meme makers (alt right) got it right—the show is an op for propagating woke themes in between red state appealing scenes. This post may seem like I am in disagreement with the fundamental point. I am not. Woke is littered all over the show. We could name a few:
In one of the early seasons, Monica torments her Mongolian conflicted soul (she’s really Asian and not a “native American” as she claimed) and has an affair of the heart with another man, while teaching her students at Montana State the virtues of being a victim.
Monica also runs her household and her husband is a literal wimp in the marriage. He submits to her…always. She is quite ok with that.
Promiscuity runs rampant in the early seasons, without consequence really. In one scene RIP tells Beth (his lifelong love mind you) “I don’t care who you fuck” meaning he is willing to be cucked. In fact, she made him her cuck for most of the series. This has all been dropped however, and a more serious relationship has developed, and Beth has great regrets about her past in the present season.
Murder is also rampant in the early seasons—justified (frontier justice) and unjustified—usually connected to the ungrateful bastard son.
The introduction of an annoying white wealthy environmental extremist (wealthy through her parents—she has no discernible means on her own) who hates herself, her parents, and this country. John Dutton immediately finds her alluring, gets her out of jail, and immediately beds her while she lives in his house as a near literal prisoner. Sheridan apparently based her character off some lefty friend who was also arrested for some such stupid thing—protesting on behalf of some woke cause (near the White House I think, but I really do not care).
The scene this season, I forget which episode, where there are two girls making out, was gratuitous, and pissed off the red state viewers, causing claims of WOKE. I will say more about this at the end of this piece because it is a GOOD SIGN on the part of the viewers who, as I note in the title, are awake to all this crap.
I am sure you might come up with more instances I have forgotten.
Enter the Meme.
Here are a few of my favorites. The last one, I wrote was THE BEST of them all, because it goes after National Review/GOPe types with hilarity:
One minor quibble—I believe he is sitting on a pre 1980 Ford. 1979 or a little before. Rear window not stock though. Dodge has probably underwritten the series as it is present everywhere on set.
Now the response—KING:
ALL these memes are criticizing the show in some way. However, in reality, the meme is using the show to make a larger point.
Spot on. The divide in America is past rural v. urban. Though that still exists, the decline of our regime are well past that simple political divide. Though the show tries to appeal to red state sentiment, it is NOT game of thrones in Montana as someone erroneously posted. For all its psy-op subtle woke embed material, it is not, say, a feast of incest like GoT. In fact it is not even about ambition for power of a “throne.” The moderate ambitions of the show are…well, I will save that for the next section.
My friend DOC MJP, soberly notes:
All spot on again—people want some good entertainment that reflects a pious rustic sensibility. Yellowstone has those moments. I will note them below. However, as I stated, this does not retract from the serious points made by the meme creators. I do believe that they think too poorly of the those who find an appeal in the show—there is something going on the memers miss.
I should dispense with one really bad take about the show: that it is basically a soap opera. It is. However, people LOVE storylines even if they are myth. Take the only near excellent series produced about the American Revolution—TURN [Hell on Wheels also about the railroad]. It made up a ton of stuff about the personal lives of the real life characters in the show—people need more than mere political philosophy and first principles—they need a hook; they need the myth to make the hero accessible to them—they need the myth to connect it to the principles of the political. They need a storyline. And, all storylines are soap operatic. Academics, intellectuals, and pundits on the right have failed to understand or promote such because they are too interested in “facts” and “strict history,” or my favorite—it is not [add your intellectual axe to grind here]. No one is persuaded by such pedantic points.
Stop that, you have a choice: a chance to change things—or wallow in your complaint and enjoy the losses. Either way, the complaint is offensive to the very people who are your potential allies.
The most successful and most popular series in the world was written and direct by Bozdag in Turkey: Ertugrul. Did this little event really happen (vid below). Highly unlikely. Does it make the myth it creates appealing, and imbue into the viewer a sense of pride and belonging in a patriotic family? Hell yes:
The sad faces are 1) those who are struggling with the truth in light of their Faith, and 2) enemies and betrayers who hate being there. The three arrows of the IYI tribe are symbolic, meaning steadfastness to family, Allah, and truth. Justice!
Live by the Tore or go home.
What is salutary in Yellowstone? Most of it is the fight of one family to keep their land from people who want to steal it, literally. The defense of the property right, is, for the fictional Duttons, a defense of their blood right. Their family fought and died for that land, thank you very fucking much, and no one is going to take it.
The problem is that the government—a progressive bunch of ruling class elites (finance scum and hedge funders) want it. Add to that land developers. Then there’s the government—both state and federal—who want the land because MUH progress! They desire the possibilities and opportunities to be made in the Dutton land—they lust for the scams and laundering to be had in the new resorts and golf courses they plan. They see all their little blue state allies coming to the state to make it like the places they want to leave.
Sound familiar? It should.
Dutton is one big FU to them. He is, as it were, alone really, standing against them and engaging in criminal behavior because, as Machiavelli taught, necessity demands you do or die. Does Dutton prudently engage in Machiavelli’s Virtu? I would say, in that part of the storyline, yes. He is a criminal of sorts, but not so like the ruling class criminals who are far more dangerous and want to make anyone who stands in their way slaves. In other words, in America, our land is being taken from us all the time through various means dressed up as progress, and it takes a family to found, and then continually refound, their land to keep it. This is no easy task. But, this is the most important part of the series.
The Duttons are saving their land, and as Madison wrote, we have property in our rights. They have a natural right to that land because they fought, sweat over it, and paid for it. I could say more about the Dutton character and his efforts to make their enemies submit, but there’s other virtues of the show. So, moving on.
One of the most laudable storylines is where Jimmy’s father (or grandfather) comes to Dutton and asks him to save his son. Jimmy is a drug addict and going nowhere. He will be dead soon if there is no intervention. Dutton intervenes, and like all the criminals on the show, Jimmy branded with the Y. The brand = family. You are coming from a fallen state, but we will save you, and make you a man and join you to our family. Brutal? You bet. But does it work? Jimmy is saved and now works at The Sixes. Dutton made him a responsible man, who found a honorable woman, and is starting a family.1 Where is the woke in any of this?
Another excellent scene is where Dutton, as Governor, fires his entire environmental staff for being stupid. They harm the environment, not save it. They are experts at nothing because they have no connection to the land they intend to manage. So, Dutton immediately fires them all without remorse. Huzzah.
The scene where Beth Dutton not only emasculates a soy college professor, then emasculates the left, but the slays the entire basis for higher ed in the process, is fabulous. It is remarkable, not to mention one of the most non-woke moments of the series:
In another scene, Beth defends her family (her marriage—no more cucking as she has repented to a great extent) when, a swinger from California tells her she is going to bed her husband. Beth beats the shit out of her. Post scene, the dialogue is how arrogant blue staters behave, and how they are not welcome in their community. They bring with them destruction—this is not a net negative dialogue—it is presented as positively correct.
Blue city people with blue city politics bring destruction to a healthy peaceful way of life that is salutary to raising good citizens—they are either people who want to steal your livelihood, or they are quislings for those who want to do the same.
Another virtue of the show is it elevates hard work. There is no defense of, “hey why you work so hard when you can automate most of the stuff you do?” The running dialogue of the show is hard work makes better people. There is never any criticism of hard work done with one’s hands. There is much hostility for those soy men who do not want to get their hands dirty.
The series also is unapologetically pro meat eating. I am sure I need say no more.
While this series has a long way to go before it concludes, and while we may be left with a more unapologetic woke ending, the positives noted above are the things red staters love, and they take them at face value. They do not need to swallow all the woke crap along with it, and they do not. I want to make in conclusion they are rather aware of all this but will take what they can get from Yellowstone, and chuck the rest.
People who watch the show may indeed be on the woke side of politics, but they are far outnumbered by MAGA. Let’s consider why other than what I posted above.
In an excellent interview, Angelo Codevilla stated to a would-be aspiring oligarch, that his interviewer speaks in ignorance because he has no idea the importance of Branson, Missouri for pious rustics. Most of the commentary about Yellowstone from the right is that [I surmise] they come from people in cities, or the outskirts, and/or who have never stepped foot in, say, a Tractor Supply.2 They are speaking about a people who they have no idea exist, and then compounding their mistake they go on by lumping them into a category they do not belong.
In TS you will find appealing well placed and market regalia like this:
The store is littered full of non-woke Yellowstone paraphernalia. I can almost assure you that if woke merchandise was offered, the customers would riot.
Yet, by far, the music used in the show—if you are not paying attention you damn well miss its import—is what I personally love, and I think it is revealing about the person who watches the show.
To the numbers: Yellowstone is killing it in the ratings by modern standards—about 6-8 million watch the show (a far cry from MASH which was far more popular). The stats (below) do not count streamers of DVR. Keep that in mind.
As you can see Boomers carry ½ the audience. I expected the number to be higher. But the appeal of the show is not really to Boomers in terms of the music it lays as soundtrack.
The 18-49 category is most interesting to me. It is roughly a little over a million. Catch up the streaming, and I think it reached 2-3 million (tops). I was most shocked the show appealed to a broad audience in spite of the soundtrack.
Yet, I understand it. Let me explain. When I was nearly a teenager and all through those years, I was always around the Outlaws (I grew up in the country, really. I took care of race horses, baled hay, you get the idea). The Outlaws were much older than me, but I had an older sister who would, well, open up for a variation of this band—Gram Parsons Flying Burrito Brothers [She also opened for Rosanne Cash—most excellent]. I got an anecdotal education around this type of hostile reaction to the modern world.
Why does this matter? Because in 1968 The Byrds created a whole new genre of music that no other band ever did. It had to inspire Waylon’s famous lament. The Byrds (with Parsons) literally created Alt. Country. Why? Because country was becoming fake and gay. It was drifting from reality. It was becoming pop music.
Why is this important? Well, because for one, Parsons was a part of the Byrds, but culturally, around this time, many Boomers got sick and tired of all the leftist politics in the country, and found the “summer of love” bullshit, hated the trend toward heavy metal (Hendrix, Zep, the psychedelic bands, etc), went full on stone cold country. Country was THE Americana music of this nation. They recovered it.
They kept their long hair, but were not down with leftist politics. The Burritos formed after the Byrds, and they set the trajectory. This does not mean that they were right wing. However, they were largely, leave us alone and let us work people. Rugged individuals who wanted to change the closed hive mind of Nashville.
So, yes, I know a little of all this because I hung around people like this (below). Meet our friends the Wray Brothers Band (from 1980 I think this one).
Alt country was a big FU to the Nashville establishment—think of Nashville as GOPe. They definitely are, especially today. They represent the ruling elite of country music, and also serve RINO republican values, but not really. And THAT is the op Nashville has played on people; they are the controlled opposition. I am reminded of a statement Shania Twain made that demonstrates Nashville vapidness: “I am not just a lap dancer you know.” Not “JUST”? She was Nashville’s star at the time.
Alt Country acts like the Flying Burritos sought to overturn that apple cart but Parsons died at Joshua tree in the early 70s. We had to wait several decades for the 90s before what the Byrds/Parsons set into motion that would take off.3 And take off it did!
To cut to the chase, both Robbie Fulks and the Lone Star Troubadour Dale Watson serve as artistic criticisms to GOPe country:
So why does any of the above matter? Because while there are a lot of leftists in alt country acts (Steve Earle, Nikki Lane—the queen of Torch and Twang—and others), the sound track of Yellowstone is ALL Alt country/Ya’llternative and a rugged rejection of the ruling class.
Heck, one of the supporting actors is Alt country star Ryan Bingham—he is excellent:
Bingham has been making Alt Country records since 2002, so he has a large following in the genre.
Those 2-3 million 18-49 viewers of Yellowstone are listening to people like him. Note, Bingham in Montana at a benefit—the people KNOW his songs:
There is nothing woke about the celebration of country/western man. Bingham does that in spades. He celebrates life in open owned space, not life in the pod.
The intimate connection to the music is most evident in two other acts featured by Yellowston—Zach Byan & Cody Jinks. Note in the Bryan video the age of the audience; in Jinks, note the broader appeal. Here is your Yellowstone audience. EVERYONE knows these songs by heart. These are not people seduced into wokeness—they are your future homesteaders and gun shop owners.
You are welcome for the clear pill in advance:
Did you catch Bryan’s criticism of LA? Excellent. Did you note the age of his audience? All Millennial and gen z.
Jinks:
Wanna be Hipsters—he just lambasted Austin’s pretend cowboy clientele. HEH. And if you missed the Dixie reference…you need to pay closer attention. Jinks hates Bullshit scenes—he means you Nashville, and hipsters—musicians with an agenda, and Republicans who do not mean what they say. Hell Yes.
Sheridan is smart to include this soundtrack in his series. If you want to listen to all 13 hours, get on over to Spotify and search for the playlist. It is rather awesome.
Since Sheridan is from Texas, he is intimately familiar with the alt country scene—Texas has a rich history going far back into the Parsons era, and carried forth by Texans like Townes van Zandt. But Sheridan never lived it. He comes from a no farm affluence, and he only visited his grandmother’s ranch. He did not LIVE the life.
In some ways, he is one of those who could be characterized by this GOPe hit:
Yuck. Catchy tune, awful country. Overproduced. Sheridan carries this with him, and you can see it in all the woke moments of the show. It is a sort of, I want to play with the cool kids too type of mentality.
Is Yellowstone the best thing on TV? Maybe. But those watching it are not idiots. They roll their eyes at the woke crap; they love the non woke material. They are the soil of this country trying to recover something lost. They may be trying to recover something lost in themselves. We should be aware of that.
Support them do not chastise them.
Disagree? All welcome here:
See the debate over what is Chili by the way. Excellent stuff.
William Wheelright above may be the only exception to this.
It is not like there were no acts after: In the 70s there were people like Marshall Tucker, Commander Cody, the Outlaws, the country outlaws of Waylon and Hank Jr, and also the acts found on alt country radio that boomed at this time, including the legendary KFAT. In the 80s we almost had it—Del Fuegos, Lone Justice, the Longryders—but it never took off. Then, BOOM, Uncle Tupelo and the golden era of alt country began.